The Altar Steps eBook

“Yes, really,” said Brother Simon.
“I looked everywhere, and there’s not
a mark on it.”

All turned involuntarily toward Mark, whose paper
in fact it was, although he gave no sign of being
conscious of the ownership.

“In a General Chapter of the Order of St.
George, held upon the Vigil of the Epiphany of our
Lord Jesus Christ, in the year of Grace, 1903, it
was resolved to close the Priory of the Order in the
town of Aldershot.”

The Reverend Father, having invoked the Holy Trinity,
declared the Chapter dissolved.

CHAPTER XXVIII

DIVISION

Mark was vexed with himself for evading the responsibility
of recording his opinion. His vote would not
have changed the direction of the policy; but if he
had voted against giving up the house at Aldershot,
the Father Superior would have had to record the casting
vote in favour of his own proposal, and whatever praise
or blame was ultimately awarded to the decision would
have belonged to him alone, who as head of the Order
was best able to bear it. Mark’s whole sympathy
had been on the side of Brother George, and as one
who had known at first hand the work in Aldershot,
he did feel that it ought not to be abandoned so easily.
Then when Brother Athanasius was speaking, Mark, in
his embarrassment at such violence of manner and tone,
picked up a volume lying on the table by his elbow
that by reading he might avoid the eyes of his brethren
until Brother Athanasius had ceased to shout.
It was the Rule of St. Benedict which, with a print
of Fra Angelico’s Crucifixion and an image of
St. George, was all the decoration allowed to the bare
Chapter Room, and the page at which Mark opened the
leather-bound volume was headed: DE PRAEPOSITO
MONASTERII.

“It happens too often that
through the appointment of the Prior grave scandals
arise in monasteries, since some there be who, puffed
up with a malignant spirit of pride, imagining themselves
to be second Abbots, and assuming unto themselves
a tyrannous authority, encourage scandals and
create dissensions in the community. . . .

“Hence envy is excited, strife,
evil-speaking, jealousy, discord, confusion;
and while the Abbot and the Prior run counter to each
other, by such dissension their souls must of
necessity be imperilled; and those who are under
them, when they take sides, are travelling on
the road to perdition. . . .

“On this account
we apprehend that it is expedient for the
preservation of peace
and good-will that the management of his
monastery should be
left to the discretion of the Abbot. . . .

“Let the Prior
carry out with reverence whatever shall be enjoined
upon him by his Abbot,
doing nothing against the Abbot’s will, nor
against his orders.
. . .”